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Understanding the New Energy Consumer

Deck:

Unlocking value in the evolving energy marketplace.

Byline:

Greg Guthridge and Michael Britt

Author Bio:

Greg Guthridge (gregory.s.guthridge@accenture.com) is the global senior executive lead for Accenture retail and business services for utilities. Michael Britt (michael.britt@accenture.com) is an Accenture utilities strategy senior manager. The authors acknowledge the contributions of Tim Porter, Michael Dary and Shan Parmar.

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Energy providers are awash in change. As the industry continues responding to concerns over climate change, the safety and security of supply, and volatile energy prices, disruptive technologies are supporting the development of new value-added products and services—and creating opportunities and challenges for utilities and energy providers. From electric vehicles and distributed generation to home area networks, advances in the cost and availability of these technologies are accelerating consumer interest and adoption.

The evolving energy marketplace includes in-home consumer products and technologies and demand-side management programs, as well as related support services. As value-added products and services proliferate, so will utilities’ competition from traditional and non-traditional players. Indeed, the introduction of the beyond-the-meter marketplace will challenge utilities to rethink their customer relationships beyond business-as-usual activities.1 In other words, it has become more important than ever for utilities and energy providers to develop a deeper understanding of consumer needs and preferences and to effectively address them.

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